In the field of telephony communication, there have been many improvements in technology over the years that have contributed to more efficient use of telephone communication within hosted call-center environments. Most of these improvements involve integrating the telephones and switching systems in such call centers with computer hardware and software adapted for, among other things, better routing of telephone calls, faster delivery of telephone calls and associated information, and improved service with regard to client satisfaction. Such computer-enhanced telephony is known in the art as computer-telephony integration (CTI). Generally speaking, CTI implementations of various design and purpose are implemented both within individual call-centers and, in some cases, at the telephone network level. For example, processors running CTI software applications may be linked to telephone switches, service control points (SCP), and network entry points within a public or private telephone network. At the call-center level, CTI-enhanced processors, data servers, transaction servers, and the like, are linked to telephone switches and, in some cases, to similar CTI hardware at the network level, often by a dedicated digital link. CTI processors and other hardware within a call-center is commonly referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE). It is the CTI processor and application software is such centers that provides computer enhancement to a call center.
In a CTI-enhanced call center, telephones at agent stations are connected to a central telephony switching apparatus, such as an automatic call distributor (ACD) switch or a private branch exchange (PBX). The agent stations may also be equipped with computer terminals such as personal computer/video display units (PCNVDU) so that agents manning such stations may have access to stored data as well as being linked to incoming callers by telephone equipment. Such stations may be interconnected through the PC VDU by a local area network (LAN). One or more data or transaction servers may also be connected to the LAN that interconnects agent stations. The LAN is, in turn, typically connected to the CTI processor, which is connected to the call switching apparatus of the call center.
When a call arrives at a call center, whether or not the call has been pre-processed at an SCP, typically at least the telephone number of the calling line is made available to the receiving switch at the call center by the network provider. This service is available by most networks as caller-ID information in one of several formats such as Automatic Number Identification (ANI). Typically the number called is also available through a service such as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). If the call center is computer-enhanced (CTI), the phone number of the calling party may be used as a key to access additional information from a customer information system (CIS) database at a server on the network that connects the agent workstations. In this manner information pertinent to a call may be provided to an agent, often as a screen pop on the agent's PCNVDU.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in publicly switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of a separate information and data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multimedia telephone system known in the art by several names. In this new systemology, telephone calls are simulated by multimedia computer equipment, and data, such as audio data, is transmitted over data networks as data packets. In this system the broad term used to describe such computer-simulated telephony is Data Network Telephony (DNT).
For purposes of nomenclature and definition, the inventors wish to distinguish clearly between what might be called conventional telephony, which is the telephone service enjoyed by nearly all citizens through local telephone companies and several long-distance telephone network providers, and what has been described herein as computer-simulated telephony or data-network telephony. The conventional systems are referred to herein as Connection-Oriented Switched-Telephony (COST) systems, CTI enhanced or not.
The computer-simulated, or DNT systems are familiar to those who use and understand computers and data-network systems. Perhaps the best example of DNT is telephone service provided over the Internet, which will be referred to herein as Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT), by far the most extensive, but still a subset of DNT.
Both DNT and COST systems use signals transmitted over network links. In fact, connection to data networks for DNT such as IPNT is typically accomplished over local telephone lines, used to reach points in the network. These hosted connection interfaces are known as Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The definitive difference between these categories is that COST telephony may be considered to be connection-oriented telephony. In the COST system, calls are placed and connected by a specific dedicated path, and the connection path is maintained over the time of the call. Bandwidth is basically assured. Other calls and data do not share a connected channel path in a COST system. A DNT system, on the other hand, is not dedicated or connection-oriented. That is, data, including audio data, is prepared, sent, routed, and received as data packets over a data-network. The data packets share network links, and may travel by varied and variable paths.
Recent improvements to available technologies associated with the transmission and reception of data packets during real-time DNT communication have enabled companies to successfully add DNT, principally IPNT, capabilities to existing CTI call centers. Such improvements, as described herein and known-to the inventor, include methods for guaranteeing available bandwidth or quality of service (QOS) for a transaction, improved mechanisms for organizing, coding, compressing, and carrying data more efficiently using less bandwidth, and methods and apparatus for intelligently replacing lost data via using voice supplementation methods and enhanced buffering capabilities.
In addition to Internet protocol (IPNT) calls, a DNT center may also share other forms of media with customers accessing the system through their computers. E-mails, video mails, fax, file share, file transfer, video calls, and so forth are some of the other forms of media which may be used. This capability of handling varied media leads to the term multimedia communications center, which is used in this application. A multimedia communications center may be a combination CTI and DNT center, or may be a DNT center capable of receiving COST calls and converting them to a digital DNT format. The term communication center will replace the term call center hereinafter in this specification when referring to multi-media capabilities.
In typical communication centers, DNT is accomplished by Internet connection and IPNT calls. For this reason, IPNT and the Internet will be used in examples to follow. IT should be understood, however, that this usage is exemplary, and not limiting.
In systems known to the inventors, incoming IPNT calls are processed and routed within an IPNT-capable communication center in much the same way as COST calls are routed in a CTI-enhanced call-center, using similar or identical routing rules, waiting queues, and so on, aside from the fact that there are two separate networks involved. Communication centers having both CTI and IPNT capability typically utilize LAN-connected agent-stations with each station having a telephony-switch-connected headset or phone, and a PC connected, in most cases via LAN, to the network carrying the IPNT calls. Therefore, in most cases, IPNT calls are routed to the agent's PC while conventional telephony calls are routed to the agent's conventional telephone or headset. Typically separate lines and equipment must be implemented for each type of call weather COST or IPNT.
Due in part to added costs associated with additional equipment, lines, and data ports that are needed to add IPNT capability to a CTI-enhanced call-center, companies are currently experimenting with various forms of integration between the older COST system and the newer IPNT system. For example, by enhancing data servers, interactive voice response units (IVR), agent-connecting networks, and so on, with the capability of conforming to Internet protocol, call data arriving from either network may be integrated requiring less equipment and lines to facilitate processing, storage, and transfer of data.
With many new communication products supporting various media types available to businesses and customers, a communication center must add significant application software to accommodate the diversity. For example, e-mail programs have differing parameters than do IP applications. IP applications are different regarding protocol than COST calls, and so on. Separate routing systems and/or software components are needed for routing e-mails, IP calls, COST calls, file sharing, etc. Agents must then be trained in the use of a variety of applications supporting the different types of media.
Keeping contact histories, reporting statistics, creating routing rules and the like becomes more complex as newer types of media are added to communication center capability. Additional hardware implementations such as servers, processors, etc. are generally required to aid full multimedia communication and reporting. Therefore, it is desirable that interactions of all multimedia sorts be analyzed, recorded, and routed according to enterprise (business) rules in a manner that provides seamless integration between media types and application types, thereby allowing agents to respond intelligently and efficiently to customer queries and problems.
One challenge facing a multimedia communication center involves the routing of calls and other interaction events. By utilizing enhanced CTI capabilities, communication centers known to the inventor can apply internal routing rules within a telephone network so that internal routing capabilities extend into the network. This is accomplished by enhancing telephony switches both within the center and at network level with CTI processors running transaction server software. Distributed CTI components are interconnected for communication by a separate data network. This technique greatly enhances COST routing capability within a communication center. However, with multimedia centers wherein agents utilize a plurality of terminals running a variety of software applications, internal routing of events requires considerable software configuration and central control. This is especially true if intelligent routing routines are incorporated that enable routing according to skill set, agent availability, predictive or statistical results, and so on.
In current art, terminal capabilities including software capabilities and user/agent preferences are not taken into account when routing events within a communication center. Event routing is currently performed around three basic sets of attributes. Call-associated attributes such as routing based on DNIS etc. make up the simplest of these attributes. Interaction attributes are obtained via interaction with clients such as by interactive voice response (IVR) automates. Configured attributes, the most complex, include agent availability states, agent skills, language preferences, and so on. In some cases, capabilities such as Web-enabled communication capabilities are coded and listed as agent skills in skill based routing routines. However, this must be initiated during configuration of the main communication center routing system, which in all cases, is centrally controlled.
In a distributed software system known to the inventor and listed under the cross-reference section as “Distributed Hardware/Software System for Managing Agent Status in a Communication Center”, distributed agents of the software application monitor communications capabilities and operating states of agents operating on a communications network and render the data results of the monitoring to subscribing applications using a known presence reporting protocol. The software application comprises a first portion of the software for collecting and sending data about communications capabilities and states of activity of the target agents, and a second portion of the software for receiving the data about communications capabilities and states of activity of the target agents and for summarizing the data into a usable form for rendering to the subscribing applications, which are typically event routing applications.
It has occurred to the present inventor that routing internal events in a communication center could be accomplished according to discoverable capabilities using a distributed software system if such routines are based on information attainable and reportable from agent communication terminals or host terminals controlling or monitoring them. In prior art, there is little if any integration enabling a composite view of all of the capabilities of an agent's station or communication center preferences for media types that may include versions of enabling software.
A protocol known to the inventor and used in some Internet-based applications enables discovery and communication of certain capabilities and preferences of nodes connected to the network. The protocol known as composite-capability/preference profiling (CC/PP) was recently developed and refined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The goal of CC/PP framework is to specify how client devices express their capabilities and preferences, user/agent profile, to a network-connected server that serves data content. CC/PP framework uses a known resource description format (RDF) to organize capabilities and preferences for propagation through the network. Optimally, extensible markup language (XML) is used as the descriptor language for expressing the values.
The current use of CC/PP is to enable tailored content to be downloaded to requesting nodes wherein the content is tailored according to the discovered capabilities of the requesting node and in part to user preferences associated with a user operating the node and authorizing the data request. CC/PP information is typically collected and propogated during a current data session between a client node and a content provider.
A good example of the use of CC/PP is that of a user downloading a software program from a server on the network and installing the software at his or her node. Discoverable capabilities include type of node, platform, version of operating system, existence of any potentially conflicting programs, current version of replaced program, and so on. User preferences may include description of custom download and install, preference of certain program features over others, and so on.
There are known software systems that are capable of taking an inventory of the capabilities of a terminal and rendering the information available to a requesting node. In some cases terminals have a special memory dedicated to all kinds of manufacturing and maintenance data, and those memories can usually be read using some special commands. In other cases, there are inventory software programs installed on servers or on remote accessing nodes that are capable of discovering which software programs and versions are installed on the remote node. However, information available to and collected by these methods has not been utilized for interaction purposes such as event routing, either on a data network or within the scope of a communications center.
What is clearly needed is a distributable capability and preference discovery and reporting system that may be integrated with routing applications operating within a communication center environment. Such a system should be easily implemented, readily updateable, and would avoid the drawbacks of a centrally controlled and integrated monitoring and reporting system.